is there such a thing as a B&W printer?

BetterSense · 09-07-2008, 05:05 PM

I'm kind of a newb. I have questions for the digital picture printers here.

I notice that a lot of people these days, either use digital cameras or (like me) scan their film. So after I'm all done gimping away at my files, I can either

1. take my flashdrive to walmart, snapfish etc. and have prints made or

2. use an inkjet printer, right?

But what if it's B&W? Do inkjets print good B&W photos? Are you supposed to use certain settings, or what?

And is a Canon Pixma MP210 a decent printer? I don't even have any photo paper, but I don't want to buy any and find out I have a cheap printer and it's not worth it (I got the printer for free).

Also isn't ink like, expensive?

raz-0 · 09-07-2008, 09:06 PM

If you take it someplace that prints digital photos with a high end printer (like costco), B&W images come out pretty decent. At least the B&W shots I have tried.

However, I tend to duotone B&W conversions to look more like a traditional B&W print. Most prints always seemed ot have a color cast to the grays to me, and that's always been part of what I appreciated ina B&W print.

IMO, someplace like costco where they have the color profiles of their printers online, and the prints are so cheap, is SO much more cost effective for getting prints done. For the cost of ONE set of cartridges for my cheap inkjet, I can get a costco membership and over 100 4x6 prints and a couple 8x12 prints.

Not to try to sell costco per se, but they are pretty much the only place in my area that cheap and convenient with their color profiles.

BetterSense · 09-07-2008, 09:12 PM

What's a color profile?

raz-0 · 09-07-2008, 10:35 PM

yeah see.. now you are starting the discussion of color management.

Short simple version. Reality has all the colors reality has. Then there's your eye, which can see many of those colors. Then there's your camera, which can see only a subset of what you can see. That is the color space of the camera. PRinters are even more limited than the camera and have an even smaller color space. The monitor also has a smaller color space (in general). A color profile is the definition of the color space a device is capable of representing.

Compensating for the differences in color space is basically what is called color management.

If you want to read more, you can start here: Overview of Color Management

Beyond that, ask google as it is pretty muhc a bottomless pit as a subject goes, and I only know enough to know when I should be concerned or not, and not enough to have an end to end workflow that is even 90% predictable.

BetterSense · 09-08-2008, 04:09 PM

Ok thanks. I kinda was wondering about B&w also because it would seem that the printers might not be designed for good B&W reproduction because usually when you print B&W it usually mean like text documents and pdfs and stuff. But maybe the black channel on inkjets is good? I dunno. I think the thing to do is to have prints made, as few prints as I'm ever going to want. I just made a digital picture frame; that's pretty nice.

*roy* · 09-12-2008, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by raz-0

yeah see.. now you are starting the discussion of color management.

If you want to read more, you can start here: Overview of Color Management

Beyond that, ask google as it is pretty muhc a bottomless pit as a subject goes, and I only know enough to know when I should be concerned or not, and not enough to have an end to end workflow that is even 90% predictable.

no s^%$ most people think all it takes is hitting the print button..
i've been happy with canon forever. i don't use their ink tho. for under $50 i can refill 8 times.. canon's ink would be $800..
raz is right.. you'll open a bucket of worms mentioning color balance..
i've been using canon and redriver paper. RR has profiles for most of their paper if you're using a hi-end printer..
i'v got a mp310 and it does a very good print. not sure about the 210 tho.
for the casual printer will probably be just fine.
if there is a fry's electronics around the sell a 20pack 99¢ of glossy on sell. it's adaquate paper for most..
i've also got an ip6000d that was my main printer untill i got the pro9000..you're welcome to it for 20bucks + shipping.